The requirement for schools to have a SIP will be ended with the new education bill. The quality of SIP work has been very variable. Some schools have found the support invaluable and will continue to employ the services of their SIPs after the requirement for that ends. As Local Authorities begin to struggle to meet the needs for support from schools, QA South-West will find itself well-positioned to supply schools with a critical friend.

QA South-West is working with schools doing exactly that. Few SIPs can provide the specialist support that Paul and colleagues can give and as a result of that support, some schools have found an alternative to the SIP system. The support can be very flexible through the year and can be tailored exactly to an individual school’s needs, rather than being directed by the expectations of a SIP manager. The support can be provided either by Paul, or by skilled inspection practitioners, many of whom have been recent primary and secondary headteachers. All will come with QA South-West’s guarantee of their work being known personally to Paul.

SIP work is best tied in with the monitoring of headteacher targets. Two SIP visits a year, as a part of which Paul will support governors in monitoring progress towards the HT achieving their targets, would be best.

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What We Do

Talk for Teaching leads to improved quality of teaching.

QA South-West has helped many schools to improve the quality of their teaching. It's a notoriously difficult thing to do, but through teachers and TAs reflecting together and pooling their collective intelligence, it can be done. 'Talk for Teaching' involves staff watching other teacher's lessons together with colleagues.

We can be there at the start to demonstrate prompts, advise on positive language and to set school protocols, but the process is easily sustainable. Staff soon begin to take ownership of both the process and their own Professional Development. Teachers improve their own teaching and TAs improve their own work. In Dylan William's words; 'they get 'better' at what they do by seeing the work of others and talking about it, as it happens'. The improvements over a year are clearly measurable and the comments from schools and teachers who have participated in this process are just terrific. The impact of the process can be measured by hard edged outcomes: the quality of teaching, learning and assessment being judged to be good, or outstanding, in the school.

QA South-West works with MATS, academy chains, co-operative trusts, learning communities and over 100 individual schools, colleges and Academies. There have been some notable successes for those schools during their inspections and Principals and headteachers, together with staff in the school, felt an awful lot more comfortable about the process!

This was even recognised by Ofsted in one report from Barnsole Primary , a large 3-form entry primary in Gillingham where the team found this, as the school improved rapidly from RI to Outstanding, with Talk for Teaching at the heart of its improvement process:

"Together with the deputy headteacher, the headteacher has led the ‘Talk for Teaching’ programme that has been an instrumental part of transforming the quality of teaching over time. The high-quality teaching in this school now leads to outstanding outcomes for pupils. The school has used this professional development programme to involve leaders, teachers, teaching assistants, governors and other members of the school staff in observing teaching together. They have detailed conversations about the effectiveness of what is seen and how it can be improved. Staff discuss the quality of teaching regularly and freely share ideas about what works well with colleagues."

It was a tremendous pleasure and privilege to work with all the staff and leaders at Barnsole and QA South-West congratulates Sean McKeown and his excellent team on a remarkably rapid transformation of the quality teaching in the school to outstanding.

Do get in touch; call any time. 07808 793673

Paul and QA South-West help schools across England to improve. Distance help is quite possible, especially with SEF support, though face-to-face help is much better, for staff, SLT and headteacher CPD.